Lets talk Chaiiwala – A Review

Heads up, photos this day were pretty poor. I do apologise. I got a tad too excited and distracted by the place that I didn’t focus on the photos nearly as much as I should! But hey, my opinions and honest review matter more than pics, that’s what instagram is for!

So, Chaiiwala has been a restaurant / cafe I have been seeing all over snapchat, so of course I jumped at the chance to try it out.

Chaiiwala is a cafe (I’d say its too small and casual to be a restaurant) which serves Indian street snacks and drinks, their speciality being tea (aka chaii). Chaiiwala literally translates to ‘the man who serves tea’.

There are quite a few branches around the UK, I visited the one in Bolton.

Want to see some decent pictures? I know you do! Here are a few that used the hashtag on Instagram

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My opinion:
This place is well worth the try! The food and drinks are super duper affordable! The place does get busy, so would recommend going during less packed hours, so avoid lunch time! We did wait a stupidly long time for our food, just over half an hour!! I know! Terrible! But the poor guys were working on overdrive! It was that busy! Bless our waiter, he did apologise and the friendly service made up for it! That wouldn’t stop me going again at all!

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​What we ordered:

Limbu pani (translation: Lemon water) : So so so good! It’s really refreshing, and not at all too tangy! You could taste the lime and the lemon, and it was a little sweet so there was no bitterness! Kinda tastes like cloudy lemonade! If you go on a hot day (well, a hot day for us brits) then I highly highly recommend trying this, provided you like lemonade! £1.50 for a small which is more than ideal!

Masala chips : Have you ever tried spicy ketchup? This is what it tasted like to me. Chips in a cone, drowned in spicy ketchup and garnished with spring onions. They were really good if I’m being honest. I did ask the waiter if they were nice (the picture on the wall of them didn’t look the best!) and he said it’s really popular so I was a little hopeful! So glad I ordered though! Also, they were only like £2!! Would expect it to be much more! The portion size was good too!

Gulab Jamun Sundae : Gulab jamun are an indian dessert. They are deep fried dough balls soaked in a sugar syrup. So you can imagine they are sickly sweet! As a sundae, I expected it to be served in a sundae bowl with icecream scoops and toppings, but instead it was more like an icecream milkshake, with the whole gulab jamun in the middle, topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce. This quite frankly was weird, like, you can’t drink it because of the balls in the middle, so you’re kind of eating it with a spoon. I don’t think this is something I would get again, my curious mind just wanted to try and I am glad I did. Sugar craving satisfied to say the least!

All in all, I would definitely go again! The place is affordable, the interior is cute and clean, and them chips were YUM!!! Next time, I would want to try the tea, it is their speciality. It was just too warm to have tea that day, so I gave it a miss.

Have you been? Or seen it on social media? I’d love to know your thoughts.